"Baby Can I Hold You" is the third single released by the Americancontemporary folk artist Tracy Chapman, released in late 1988. The song reached the top 50 in the United States, unlike its predecessor, "Talkin' 'bout a Revolution", but it failed to become Chapman's second top 40 hit, peaking at #48. It did, however, give her a second chart entry on the US Adult Contemporary charts, peaking at #19 in early 1989. Given the commercial decline Chapman suffered following the release of her second album Crossroads, "Baby Can I Hold You" also became her last top 50 hit until 1996's "Give Me One Reason". In July 1990, the song reached No. 1 in Portugal. Chapman re-released the song in 2001, in support of her first greatest hits albumCollection. The song created buzz in popular media in 2018, when Nicki Minaj used an interpolation of "Baby Can I Hold You" in her song "Sorry" featuring Nas. Minaj had used the sample believing from the song "Sorry" by Shelly Thunder, unaware that song was actually a cover of "Baby Can I Hold You". Minaj left the song off her fourth studio album due to clearance issues, but the song was leaked to Funkmaster Flex shortly after the album's release in August. In October, Chapman sued Minaj for copyright infringement, claiming that Minaj leaked the song to Flex after Chapman denied her team's request for clearance of the song multiple times beginning in June.
In 1997, the Irish boy band Boyzone released a cover of "Baby Can I Hold You" as a double A-side with the non-album track "Shooting Star". "Baby Can I Hold You" thus became their second single from their third studio album, Where We Belong. The single, like "Picture of You" before it, peaked at #2 on the official UK singles chart and stayed in the top 75 for fourteen weeks. The song was the 26th best selling single of 1997 in the United Kingdom. The song was the 9th biggest selling boyband single of the 90's in the United Kingdom. The song has received a Platinum sales status certification for sales of over 600,000 copies in the United Kingdom and has appeared on compilations of Boyzone's work. The song reappeared on lead singer Ronan Keating's greatest-hits compilation 10 Years of Hits.
In 2005, Boyzone frontman Ronan Keating released his own cover of "Baby Can I Hold You" as the third and final single from his greatest hits compilation, 10 Years of Hits. It became the second song that he originally recorded with Boyzone to be re-released for his own solo career. In the United Kingdom, the single was only released via digital download and thus it failed to chart. In Germany, the single received a full-scale release and peaked at #42 on the German Singles Chart.
